Education Today Education Today Magazine
A Birmingham year 7 has landed a dream family holiday worth £600 after winning a regional literacy skills competition for schools.
Kirsty Duggins, age 12, of Smith’s Wood Sports College, Solihull, came out on top in a public vote on the website of competition organisers Everywhere Travel for her dream holiday write up on Centre Parcs – which was based on childhood memories from her first visit as a toddler. She polled 806 votes, which was some 300 more than her nearest competitor.
An ecstatic Kirsty explains: “I am so happy to have won a holiday for my family and still can’t quite believe it. I am really looking forward to having fun doing some of the cool type of activities I wrote about. It will be really exciting as I’ll get to do awesome things I’ve always wanted to try, like aqua jetting, rock climbing and tree trekking, plus I get to take my best friend Darcy Dolaghan (also year 7 at Smith’s Wood Sports College) too.”
David Sims, Key Stage 3 Progress Manager at Smith’s Wood Sports College, says: “I am so very pleased that Kirsty has won this competition. It was a tight contest, with many students from all over the region submitting pieces of high quality work that showed both excellent written skills and good imaginations, but Kirsty did really well at producing a finished article that was a cut above the rest. Her consistent high standards of effort and behaviour are a credit to her and an excellent example for the rest of her peers. We are grateful to Everywhere Travel to have offered our school this opportunity, and see it as one of many examples of how in life hard work and high standards pay dividends.”
Proud mum Deborah Duggins says: “We are really proud of Kirsty’s achievement and thrilled that she will be whisking us away on holiday. How very lucky is it to be taken away by your 12- year-old daughter. We did think we’d be going to Centre Parcs, but she’s gone for the similar Haven Holiday Park in Burnham-On-Sea instead, so we’re off to sunny Somerset in August!”
Everywhere Travel managing director, Stephanie O’Reilly, says: “All our finalists really embraced the competition and the quality of their writing was very high. But Kirsty’s lovely worded piece just had a little bit more about it and she deserved to win after polling 40% of the overall votes.”